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Book Reviews of Winter's Bone: A Novel

Winter's Bone: A Novel
Winter's Bone A Novel
Author: Daniel Woodrell
ISBN-13: 9781439559055
ISBN-10: 1439559058
Publication Date: 10/8/2008
Pages: 193
Edition: Reprint
Rating:
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 1

4.5 stars, based on 1 rating
Book Type: Library Binding
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

3 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

BaileysBooks avatar reviewed Winter's Bone: A Novel on + 491 more book reviews
For me, this is one of those rare cases where the movie was better than the book. And since I think of the movie as two hours of my life that I will never be able to get back, I dont have much to say about the book that is positive. I read this because my book club assigned it. Otherwise, I would have gladly passed it up.

This is one of those books (or movies, for that matter) that leaves you with very little, if anything, to celebrate. The plot is an exercise in depravity on all levels. There is a palpable chord of poverty and desperation and despair that rings a sour note on every page, and the characters leave you with very little in the end to reward you for the time you spent among the wreckage of their unfortunate lives.

I found Ree to be a very well done and complex character, a glimmer of light among so much darkness. But all of the other characters seemed far less developed, appearing as slightly different versions of the same sad, uneducated, and excessively hostile person. This was a book with no compelling mystery and no significant ending. It was a frigid trudge through ignorance and isolation, and I cannot say that I particularly enjoyed it.

Some will praise this book for its prose, others for its harsh look at the reality of lives lived on the brink of self-destruction. I was not particularly impressed with either, and for those two reasons alone this is not a book that I would recommend.
reviewed Winter's Bone: A Novel on + 59 more book reviews
A mystery and a slice of life that is lived by few.

The descriptiveness was vivid, you can feel the cold outside, the heat from the fire and the pain the characters to through - physically and emotionally.

Will look for other titles from Woodrell because of this book.
reviewed Winter's Bone: A Novel on + 34 more book reviews
Read the first time for the story and hopefully a second time for the prose. I rarely do that.